Sonko gets reprieve as tribunal orders KRA to unfreeze his bank accounts
Former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko got a temporary reprieve after the Tax Appeals Tribunal ordered the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to immediately lift agency notices freezing his bank accounts.
The ruling directed KRA to remove the agency notices placed on Sonko’s accounts at Equity Bank and Co-operative Bank, pending the determination of his appeal in an ongoing tax dispute.
The Tribunal, chaired by Dr. Rodney Oluoch, held that the taxes in question remain disputed and are therefore not collectable at this stage under Section 52(2) of the Tax Procedures Act.
“The taxes subject to the said agency notices are disputed and not yet determined, hence not collectable pending the hearing and determination of this appeal,” the Tribunal ruled.
Sonko’s legal team had argued that the agency notices were issued prematurely and unlawfully, effectively freezing millions of shillings in his accounts without due process.
The Tribunal agreed, granting the former governor temporary relief as the substantive appeal proceeds.
The decision now allows Sonko access to his funds while the Tribunal continues to consider the merits of his challenge against KRA’s tax assessments.
Meanwhile, a court stopped the conduct a wedding that was scheduled to take place tomorrow, Saturday, December 6, 2025, at a residence in Karen, Nairobi.
According to court documents, the application was certified as urgent, with the court noting that the matter is a family dispute that ought to be resolved through family negotiations and/or mediation.
The court further directed that the respondent be served personally for an inter partes mention for directions today, December 5, 2025, at 3 p.m.
In the meantime, a temporary order of injunction was issued restraining the respondent, her agents, servants, representatives, or any other persons acting at her behest from proceeding with, conducting, facilitating, or in any other way participating in the planned wedding ceremony of the applicant’s daughter scheduled for Saturday, December 6, 2025, pending the inter partes mention for further directions.
The orders arise from a case filed by Nairobi businessman Francis Julius Ogallo against his former wife, Gladys Ong’ayo Ogallo, whom he accuses of deliberately excluding him from their daughter’s wedding and subjecting him to emotional distress and public humiliation.
Through his lawyer, Danstan Omari, Ogallo argues that the exclusion amounts to emotional abuse under the Protection Against Domestic Violence Act.
He says the respondent misrepresented his views on the choice of clergy, circulated false allegations about him, and shared his private communication with third parties in a bid to justify his exclusion.
Ogallo also claims that a similar pattern of humiliation was witnessed during the wedding of their eldest daughter in 2021.
While insisting that he does not oppose the wedding itself, the applicant says he only raised concerns over the choice of clergy due to past defamatory conduct, which he accuses the respondent of twisting to lock him out of the ceremony altogether.
In his supporting affidavit, Ogallo discloses that he has been reported to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations over alleged threats and defamation allegations he strongly denies.
A summons dated November 12, 2025, requiring him to appear before the RCI Nairobi Area, was annexed to the court papers.